2024
The Faraday Institution's SafeBatt Project won the Safety Innovation Award 2024 for its significant contributions to lithium-ion battery safety. This research was crucial for the UK's net-zero goals, ensuring safe operation across various applications such as automotive, micro-mobility, stationary storage, and aerospace.
The SafeBatt team, led by The Faraday Institution, collaborated with seven universities (Oxford, University College London, King’s College London, Newcastle, Sheffield, Warwick, and Cambridge) and industry experts. Their work focused on understanding battery failure modes and mechanisms of failure propagation, with an emphasis on detecting and mitigating events like thermal runaway.
Using advanced instrumentation and innovative testing techniques, SafeBatt investigated how material properties could trigger safety issues and varied responses. They developed models to predict thermal runaway, flame, and cell-to-cell propagation, providing valuable insights for future battery system designers.
Additionally, SafeBatt actively engaged with stakeholders, including government bodies and first responders, offering training and advisory support to enhance safety protocols. Since 2021, the project conducted over 100 public and stakeholder engagement activities, including lectures, media interviews, and presentations, to raise awareness about battery safety.
2023
HobSensus was the Safety Innovation Award winner 2023. HobSensus makes kitchens safer by ensuring hobs are not left switched on and alerts residents to potential fires.
HobSensus is a safety device that turns hobs off when left unattended. It is particularly useful for student accommodation (2022/23 saw a five-year high for electrical fires in student halls of residence), communal kitchens, and people living in sheltered or assisted-living property.
Designed by Prefect Controls Limited, the device uses an integrated timer and a 64-zone sensor which reads temperatures across the hob, identifying hot spots with pinpoint accuracy. This enables the unit to react before flashpoints are reached.
Users simply press the red button to activate the unit and start the timer. When the time elapses, the hob is switched off. But if the temperature on the hob approaches 280°C, the unit flashes and emits an audible alarm. If no action is taken the power is shut off.
As the award winner, Prefect Controls Limited had the chance to present HobSensus at the 2023 Electrical Product Safety Conference on 16 November to an audience of more than 200 manufacturers, retailers, importers, product testing houses, safety advocates, and lawyers, as well as government and enforcement bodies.
In addition to the award winner, the Highly Commended entry for 2023 went to South Tyneside Homes for its Post Occupancy Electrical Safety Check initiative, which educates tenants on electrical safety risks.
This improves awareness of how tenants can keep themselves and their families safe in their homes over the short and long-term. And it offers protection by reducing issues of disrepair, electrical faults, electrical fires, and overspending of budgets.
2022
Electrical Safety First’s coveted Safety Innovation Award was won by Connected Innovations for its complex and innovative socket outlet, backed by a core safety and communications system, which monitors a range of external factors, and can ultimately prevent the risk of overheating that could otherwise lead to a fire.
The product was invented by the founder of Connected Innovations, Anthony Parfitt, who has over 30 years of experience developing life-critical safety solutions for the Home Office, Police and Network Rail.
Connected Innovations sockets detect heat build-up in the plugs and nearby wiring and turn the appliance off, stopping the fire risk before it starts. The same patented technology can be deployed by Connected Innovations within the appliances themselves, working with the appliance manufacturers, helping to prevent the more than 5,000 appliance malfunction fires each year in the UK.
2021
Aico was the winner of the Safety Innovation Award at the Electrical Product Safety Conference 2021 for their product; the SmartLINK Gateway.
This product was designed to act as a gateway between the data that smoke and fire alarms hold and a cloud portal. This allows for homeowners and landlords to stay more up to date with the status of their alarm systems giving them increased confidence in the safety and maintenance of their alarms.
To find out more about the product, check out our interview with Aico here:
For more information about the SmartLINK Gateway, visit https://www.aico.co.uk/product/ei1000g-smartlink-gateway/
Runners up:
Sami Gabriel
SAO Limited
2020
E-Bulb is the smallest fire extinguisher in the world. It can be placed directly at source of origin of the fire – on an electrical circuit board / power adapter or potential hot spot - of almost any consumer appliance. In case of a starting fire, the E-Bulb detects the fire, reliably extinguishes it, and cuts power to prevent re-ignition.
To find out more about the product, check out E-Bulb's explanation video here:
Runners up:
Safe Connect
Smarter Utility Ltd
Click here to submit your application for this year's Safety Innovation award.